​I went to lunch with a friend recently who shared an excerpt of a book with me. It is entitled Cancer Hates Tea: A unique Preventive and Transformative Lifestyle Change to Help Crush Cancer by Maria Uspenski and Dr. Mary L. Hardy. Your personal decision on the potential for tea to be either preventative or transformative is completely up to you.

I choose to believe we have alternatives in our own health care journey and the more natural the better. The author’s choice of words at times is rather colorful and demonstrates her disdain for cancer; but, overlook those in favor of the information she shares about tea and the potential benefits on your road to good health.

My friend shared the book with me most specifically because of a reference it makes to yoga and stress which appear on page 100 . . .

“THINK LESS. LIVE MORE. Breathe deep, steep and sip, get your tea drinking pinky and your butt up in the air now. Tea, with meditation and yoga, can get you right there. Cancer downright hates this. Yup, cancer’s totally bullied by you blissfully chanting om in a room with thirty other sweaty people doing yoga. Let me fill you in on something—it took me years to figure out yoga. It’s not about the poses. It’s all about getting you out of your brain and into your heart. Your yoga instructors put you through what might seem like some ridiculous moves to help get you there. But when you start focusing 100% on relaxing while getting your butt way up in the air, your back splayed forward, and your head hanging down between your legs, there’s not much room for anything outside the present moment—you are now nowhere but right here. As circuitous a route as it may seem, doing things such as getting into the perfect downward-facing dog, mountain biking down a treacherous ridge or playing a piece of music with friends are all legitimate ways to get to Om Time because your entire being is not concerned with time, and there’s nothing left but the present moment. So what’s up with the present moment that makes it so special? It’s that you’ve had to shed all your stress to get there.”

Peggy Stevens is the founder, owner and operator of RiversZen Fitness Studios in Oregon and Washington. She is also the creator of StretchPro. You can join Peggy live at RiversZen.com or follow her online at MyRiversZen.com